A time capsule of the greatest financial mania in the history of mankind, told in real-time by regular folks and patriots. May future generations better understand the madness of crowds, and how power and money corrupt.

27 comments:

Kieth... thought you'd like this one... The Escala in Seattle, the developer is RAISING thier price thinking this will build equity for those who have purchased already and give a compelling event for those who havent... this developer will be tits up by 2009!

What is it with the fat-ass Americano's obsession of owing a house ? Is it because their asses are too fat to get into an apartment or is it simply that they are too stupid to get a simple fact through their dumb-skull muddled brain that "You ain't got JACK until you can prove that you've got the JACK to JACK with..."

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HoooooRaaaaayyyyy !!!

The time is drawing near for the fat-ass, beer-gut, frenchfried-brain Americano...

""" His judgement comes. And that right soon... """

Yes:::+ Joe6Pack is not making $25.00/hour anymore putting door on a shitty Ford Expedition on a Worker-Union protected salary. He is out-of-work, no more unemployment benefit, no more outhouse-piece-of-excrement shack equity, no piggy bank to draw from...+ JaneZinfandel is not making $25.00/hour filling out loan application for the dumb-ass Americano whom wants to purchase a dog house for $500K. Jane-DooDoo is now making $8.00/hour, if she can find any work at all in the land of the Snapper Turtle, doing the cafe-leche at StarBuck...+ Now with the oil price hitting a 150 Americano dollar a barrel, that big-ass SUV of Joe and Jane is a good candidate for a chicken coop to raise the chicken in. Or better yet, it can be converted to a Snapper Turtle pond to raise some good succulent reptiles for roasting purpose.

So, are we there yet ? How long is it gonna be till the time the Americano will be toasted as a grilled snapper turtle on a green Chinese bamboo stick, skewered from mouth to ass, all roasting nicely, juice dripping, fat sputtering, smoke-filled aromatically with that grilled reptile smell over a bed of white hot charcoal ?

He's right, a lot of stuff isn't going to sell, and you can add large SUVs and trucks to that list.That tank you're driving to the mall and taking the kids to soccer practice in has lost 30% of its value in the last 6 months. You can't afford the gas, but owe $10,000 more than its tradein value. Look for the next round of jingle mail to be car keys being sent back to the bank.

So we are interviewing candidates for an Engineering position here at work. This has been quite enlightening, since I am not very experienced at sitting on ‘the other side’ of the interview table,

No need to reject any ex-realtors or mortgage brokers, as these people do not have the mental capacity it takes to earn an Engineering degree. My first decision was to automatically reject anyone who comes to an interview wearing a flag pin on his lapel, expecting to swoon a potential employer with an insincere display of patriotism.

One candidate, when asked why he was applying for a job at this company, responded with,“Well, I am out of work and need to pay my mortgage.”

…Sometimes it can be quite difficult to restrain yourself from laughing out loud in a professional setting.

Another candidate, who wore socks & sandles and seemed a bit ‘flaky’ commented,“Since this is my second interview here, I do not need to wear a business suit and tie.”Well, maybe so bud, but we are not going to hire a person who does not understand what is appropriate and what is not, and when.

Then there was this Asian interviewee who wore a strange-looking tie clip. I swear - this silver tie clip resembled a snapping turtle that was skewered on a bamboo stake! I thought the guy – whose name was Andrew – was right on, but the other interviewers rejected him, saying that he had way too much attitude.

So we’re still looking, and no doubt will interview more candidates in the coming weeks.

That is, this is how the government is ripping our asses off. This is why you're gradually getting poorer. Why you and your spouse need to both work your asses off to get by and afford a crappy little three bedroom home in suburbia.

An interesting story showing even the UberRich in Beverly Hills are being pinched by the housing problems. And check out who the lender is. Oranges anyone?

BEVERYLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- Ed McMahon, who for decades appeared as Johnny Carson's sidekick on "The Tonight Show," is fighting to avoid foreclosure on his multimillion-dollar Beverly Hills home, according to published reports.

The former "Star Search" host was $644,000 behind on payments on $4.8 million in mortgage loans when a unit of Countrywide Financial Corp. filed a default notice Feb. 28 with the Los Angeles County Recorder's Office, The Wall Street Journal first reported late Tuesday.

McMahon, 85, has been a pitchman for the American Family Publishers' sweepstakes.

However, he has been unable to work as a pitchman for various products since he broke his neck 18 months ago, said his spokesman, Howard Bragman.

"There are plenty of people affected by the weak economy, bad housing market or bad health," Bragman said.

McMahon has been in "very fruitful discussions" with the lender to resolve the situation, Bragman said. But it's unclear whether McMahon and his wife, Pamela, will remain in the home.

A telephone message left for Countrywide early Wednesday was not immediately returned.

The six-bedroom, five-bath house is in a hilltop gated community overlooking Mulholland Drive called The Summit and is listed for sale at $6.25 million. It has been on the market two years, according to real estate agent Alex Davis, who has the listing.

The house is near that of pop star Britney Spears, which doesn't always work in its favor.

"When we were trying to sell the house one time, there were about 100 paparazzi there," Davis said.

Hey Mammoth, don't dispare. Before I retired in 2003 I had to hire 3 engineers and several techies. It took a year to find the right people - none came from Monster or the internet all direct contact. People who researched our company were more likely to research our place and be more compatible. Any engineer who changes jobs for a mortgage or is dumb enough to get into trouble is not a good thinker. A dangerous character to rely on.

"A lot of stuff out there isn't going to sell"============================

Not just in the real world either!

My government auction emails are now so overwhelming that they usually go right into the delete file without opening.

Yesterday I had some free time so I figured I'd play catch up.

OMG! The government (and ultimately us, the taxpayers) is on the hook for soooooo much overpriced junk (real estate, cars, equipment, etc) that they can't get a minimum required bid for, that now the government is entertaining fixed price offers TO SELL THE GARBAGE FOR THEM!

Kind of like when they used to offer Hummer purchase/order slots (for $10000, OR MORE,) on Ebay so you could be number 5 in line just to order yours before everybody else, THREE YEARS DOWN THE ROAD!

On selected garbage (apparently a trial run of this program) the government is taking flat rate offers for the right to sell the junk FOR the government. Don't know the specifics, how much you keep, what the governments cut is, etc., since you have to send away for the contract specs and I wasn't THAT interested, but is kina looks like:

“ Lets see now! This listed P.O.S. is MAYBE worth $150K, UNCLE wants a minimum bid of $850K to start and can’t get a nibble. Sure, I’ll offer ten grand for the right to market/stage/sell it and keep everything over $850K in my pocket.”

Seems that the heads of the seized property divisions of all of our government's agencies need to receive a one-line email:

IT'S THE PRICE, STUPID!

Since it's already too late for the "for God's sake don't accept that piece of junk as collateral" email!

Interesting story about Ed McMahon. The guy made big bucks for decades as Johnny Carson's sidekick. Yet at age 85, he still owes 4.8 million dollars on his home, and now can't pay his mortgage. Sounds like Ol Ed got some real bad advice from his financial advisor all those years, and from the realtor who sold him his home.

I seem to recall that the translation of the mexican song La Cucaracha is "The Cockroach". Does anyone know why such a song originated in Mexico? I thought I heard is goes back to the revolution and is a reference to marijuana (hence the term roach). But maybe it's just that there's a vermin problem in Pedroland.

anon #2, in Atlanta builders are also raising prices. not just one or two, but across the board. i have no clue how effective it is, but i do know i'm seeing a lot of sold signs around town for used homes.

He's right, a lot of stuff isn't going to sell, and you can add large SUVs and trucks to that list.That tank you're driving to the mall and taking the kids to soccer practice in has lost 30% of its value in the last 6 months. You can't afford the gas, but owe $10,000 more than its tradein value. Look for the next round of jingle mail to be car keys being sent back to the bank.

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Not really. I seldom if ever go to the mall. I bought my truck with cash. I bought it used and the depreciation has been minimal since the 1st owner took the huge depreictaion hit, not me. I don't care what the trade-in value is. Only a moron trades in a car when you can get 15-20% more selling it privately.

I can afford the gas quite easily as even at $4 gas I spend less than 1/2 of 1% of my income on gas every month.

I drive a large, comfortable safe vehicle while you drive your precious econo-shitbox. Good luck in a head on collision with one of those by the way.

You may save a couple of bucks on gas. But you pay more for repairs. You pay more for insurance. You pay more for registration. And you bought your econoshitbox new and are paying interest on the loan as well as taking a hit on the depreciation side.

But you go on thinking you're saving money.

And by this time next year when the oil bubble will have burst and gas is at $2.50 you'll feel like an idiot driving in the shitbox that's worth less than you owe. The econoshitbox is in its own bubble right now. And when gas prices fall next year all the people who have up safety and comfort to save $10 a month on gas will be having second thoughts and going back to their old ways. It happened in the 70s. It happened in the early 90s when oil spiked during the Gulf War and everyone all of a sudden wanted a Civic. It will happen again.

"And by this time next year when the oil bubble will have burst and gas is at $2.50 you'll feel like an idiot driving in the shitbox that's worth less than you owe. The econoshitbox is in its own bubble right now. And when gas prices fall next year all the people who have up safety and comfort to save $10 a month on gas will be having second thoughts and going back to their old ways. It happened in the 70s. It happened in the early 90s when oil spiked during the Gulf War and everyone all of a sudden wanted a Civic. It will happen again."

Amen! This always happens. Probably a decent bet would actually be to go and low ball some dealer on a nice SUV - Land Rover, Mercedes etc. get it for dirt cheap, then wait for the bubble to burst and then sell privately to a status yuppie who does not want to be seen in his econobox he bought during the green bubble.

I don't know how many of you were around when the oil shocks came in the early 70's. The big thing back then was personal windmills. Everyone purchased these Enertech windmills and had them installed in their backyards to save energy. Also, people spent thousands on solar arrays for their homes. Those people NEVER made back the money they put in to those things, and eventually oil got pretty cheap again and the windmills and solar arrays went to the scrap heap.

This happens every few years, just as housing gets out of control and a few banks fail every decade or so. This will correct, and all those that spent big bucks on the green bubble, just as the housing bubble because "they are not making any more of - insert your commodity here" will live to regret it.

If you need to purchase a new car anyway, and you are purchasing in cash - then buy something fuel efficient that you can enjoy driving. If you are like most of these reactionary hurds that follow the latest "smart ideas" and trade in your SUV (bottom of the market) for a hybrid (top of the market) you are looking at paying twice the price and slavery to interest for the next 5 years that will FAR outway even the highest perceived gas prices.

"What we need is a good 8.5 earthquake to bring these values down to reality!"

Um, an 8.5 quake will bring values UP since there will be a shortage of hosuing. If you look at New Orleans post Katrina, rents and property values actually went up. In some cases, rents actually DOUBLED overnight in neighboring areas with suitbale housing not destroyed by the hurricane.

I own 6 cars. The sum of MPG for all of them is under 50. One of them is about 3. You can all kiss my fossil fuel burning ass. And when you pull up to me in your 30 mpg 1.5L 0-60 in 12 minutes POS, I'll say hi.